There were 208 bias crimes through Nov. 9 this year, down from 252 over the same period in 2007, according to NYPD stats. Crimes against all but one group dropped; anti-Muslim crimes increased from one in 2007 to eight in 2008.

Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigrant Coalition, was pleased about the overall downturn, but said, “I still think 200 hate crimes is too many.”

Jews were the group targeted most – they were victims of 102 bias crimes this year, a drop from 117 the previous year but still much higher than the 74 anti-Semitic crimes reported in 2005.

Activists attributed the spike to increased efforts by cops to work with Jewish communities, leading to more reports.

Hate crimes against blacks dropped from 30 to 24; attacks against Hispanics fell from four to one; crimes against whites dipped from eight to five and crimes against Asians dropped from seven to three. Anti-gay crimes fell from 44 to 34, down from 47 in 2006.

Hong said she wasn’t sure what caused the rise in anti-Muslim crime.

“I know that many hate crimes go unreported, so maybe more are just reporting them,” she said.

“The more hostile the environment, the more scared people are to report crimes,” she said. “So there will always be a certain number of people who are not counted in these statistics.”